> Zeno wrote:> >It seems to me that there are multitudes of idiots who go around> >criticizing a book using secondary sources. I believe that if you have> >not read the complete book, you do not have any right to say anything> >about it. I am not supporting or antagonizing any scientific and> >political views expounded by the book. I am just criticizing the amount> >of ignorance present in these discussions. > > How many people have read _The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_ or _Mein> Kampf_....? This reasoning is similar to the huffing and puffing of the> holocaust revisionist movement and is meant to throw a smoke screen upon> the subject.

Are you so limp-minded that all you can do in an argument is raise the spectre
of Hiltler and the Holocaust? I have NOT read Mein Kampf NOR TPOTEOZ and
because I have not, I can't with integrity say didley about either. Period.
This thread is discussing a book and the ideas it contains. It is certainly
appropriate to take a side on the issue but it is fundamentally dishonest to
oppose the contents, ideas, sources, etc. of a SPECIFIC work/book without
1) having read it and/or 2) having provided compelling alternative evidence
that would make reading it as unnecessary as reading a book on the mating
habits of unicorns.

Murray and Herrnstein in The Bell Curve do not even advocate> the reading of the entire book, per se, and direct readers to read the> introductions to the chapters, along with the introductionary and> concluding chapters of the book. To quote them, "At the simplest level, it> [The Bell Curve] is only about thirty pages long." (_Bell Curve_, p. xix)> In reality, they don't want anyone to read every page, for then all their> contradictions and dubious data would be all too exposed to reasoned> debate.... but who has the time?

You, like Mike Turton, seem to constantly indulge in psychologizing about
the motives of H&R and then offering sly assertions that "their contradictions
and dubious data would be all too exposed to reasoned debate..." Would
you please provide evidence for your assertions:

1) H&R don't want anyone to read every page of their book.

2) THE BELL CURVE contains contradictions and dubious data. This should
be very easy for you. Page numbers for BELL CURVE examples will be
more than sufficient.